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Tool

The Tool December 2018 Newsletter is out, and since it’s mostly about me (of all people) I can assure you all there there is no actual Tool news contained within.

BMB: How do you get your Tool-related news? How regularly do you check other sites? Do you have sources with other sites that give you a heads up as well as friends close to a band member that give you some inside info? I remember giving someone news to give you that I couldn’t post officially. Did you get this? (It was from someone that knew Danny.)

MATT: These days, social media is the king for up to the minute Tool news. The Toolband Subreddit is probably my primary source of information these days – if something has been posted on the internet that’s Tool related, it’s normally on there sometimes within minutes of being posted. It’s a firehose like environment, with a range of Tool news and discussions coming thick and fast. On Fourtheye I tend to take the quality over quantity approach, and I think my readers prefer the more curated feed as opposed to the wild west of social media.

I have a few sources that give me snippets of info here and there, though I’d note that many of them have been pretty quiet the last few years. I don’t want to be that guy who keeps bugging people all the time, so tend to let them come to me with information if and when they have any. The common link is that they are almost always friends of Danny! A couple I know nothing about other than their email address, one in particular having provided a quite interesting recording from what I think was the Loft a few years ago…

Blair‘s Tool Newsletter for November 2018 is out now. It highlights a recent visit to LA following the Malibu fires, where Blair catches up with Danny Carey and a few other regulars from the Tool family. The good news is that Blair managed to hear at least part of the new album, though keeps it spoiler free:

While walking to his car (parked on yet another deficient alley), Danny emerged from the studio and insisted that we hear a couple of new Tool songs before we left. (Not the final mix.) Yes! Climbing into the Porche, I remarked that a cave man probably wouldn’t be able to tell that it was better than Kent’s BMW because he would be so astonished at seeing an automobile that little details wouldn’t matter. While reclined in the passenger seat (with both Sturgeon guitarists comfortably in the back), Danny put the CD into the tray and selected track 3… (No spoilers here, which I’m sure you’ll thank me for later.)

To indulge in a little speculation: Blair suggests that it’s not the final mix. The glass half full people (myself included) would take this to be that Tool are in the process of finalising the mix of the album – meaning that tracking has finished (including vocals) and that we’re perhaps on track for a release sometime before touring kicks off in 2019. The more cynical among us might say that they’ll believe a new album is coming out when they actually see it. Some are still waiting for the non-hoax version of 10,000 Days is released.

Also Danny has a Porsche Panamera now, which I believe is in addition to his Lamborghini. Perfect for a growing family!

The Welcome to Rockville festival social media team today posted a video on Facebook, promising to reveal the lineup for the 2019 event in 13 days. The video very strongly hints that Tool will be the headline act, featuring some of their artwork as well as a snippet from Mantra.

The festival is usually held in late April, which somewhat coincides with Coachella which I’d also expect to be announced around then.

The latest Tool Newsletter – the October 2018 edition is now online. It’s a reasonably brief update from Blair, mostly highlighting the new tour dates but also has a positive snippet:

On Monday, October 8th at 1:35 AM I received an enthusiastic text message from Danny. Without going into specifics, he REALLY liked what he heard in the studio that night. Therefore, I assume that the recording progress is going quite well for everyone involved.

While it’s hard to glean too much definitive information, “everyone involved” could be interpreted as including Maynard, and the date suggests that it’d be close to the time Maynard would need to wrap up the vocals before he hits the road with A Perfect Circle.

Tool fan Richard Keenan has been posting on Facebook recently about a set of Aenima DAT tapes, which are a series of recordings, both released and unreleased from the Aenima sessions. Today Richard shares with us the story of how he obtained these tapes. It’s an interesting read, and maybe these recordings will see the light of day eventually:

The story of my DAT tapes. Here is how the story goes. When ZOO Entertainment was liquidating JOE went to visit LOU at ZOO. Lou passed him the RIAA Award presented to skip Peterson. He was there to pick up some stuff. As he was walking out this BOX of DATS was sitting on LOU’s desk.. JOE asked him what is that box can I take it. LOU said No sorry I can’t give those away. Joe said no problem and proceeded to leave. At the last minute LOU SAYS, JOE ! take this box and do not tell anybody where you go them. For most of you who know this page I been collecting Tool for a very long time. I also use to be a power seller on ebay. Seems the money I made on Ebay went straight into Tool swag lol. I do not think I ever transferred funds to my Personal bank account ha. Back in the early 2000 I had met a lot of people within the music collecting and selling hobby .This 1 guy I met ,We will call him ‘JOE” own’s a website of super rare promo cd’s. He was a friend for 4 years and I purchased a few items from him. He always and still has TOP brand new promo copies never played. I had him keep a eye out for The AENIMA PROMO . After a few deals and trust was gained he explained to me how he comes across all his stuff.

Turns out he lives in REDONDO beach California.Being in the L.A region he grew up knowing and having many personal friends in the music industry. He explained to me, When companies make promo cd and what not, handful of copies are passed around to employees within the company and people who did not want them just tossed them out in the garbage can. He would make his rounds from company to company seeking PROMO stuff and sometimes yes dig in the garbage. As funny as this sounds he has a very successful website today and is doing very well. These days he just gets a phone call to pick up stuff.

Sometime in mid 2000 I travelled to California to visit record stores I was buying from for ages online and wanted to go hand pick items. So now here I was in L.A.

I messaged JOE and told him I was in the area and I wanted to met him personally so we hooked up at a Starbucks in REDONDO right buy the Pier.

I was actually picking something up from him. Once we met him personally he said to me . I have a warehouse full of stuff and need to look around for some items I know you will like but he said I cannot tell you. So we parted ways … About 3 days after that he called me up and said I found what I been looking for do you want to hook up so I can show you .. Well DUHHHH of course lol.. I zipped up to Redondo from San Diego that day and met up for another coffee.

Here we are back at the Starbucks and I see Joe holding 2 items. A small box and a RIAA AWARD presented to SKIP PETEFRSON. You can see the award in my photo I already have posted it . NOW ! and only after I see the RIAA Award he hands me a small box. When I opened the box WHAMO !!!! 27 STUDIO DAT TAPES FROM ZOO ENTERTAINMENT.. WTF.To be honest I had no Idea what they really were , But I know they were RARE AS HEN”s TEETH and I have never seen such thing before. I asked WTF is this. He said to me This Box is Tool studio work from Zoo Entertainment. He said a price, I paid and away I went. No way I was walking away from this box.

Here is how the story goes. When ZOO Entertainment was liquidating JOE went to visit LOU at ZOO. Lou passed him the RIAA Award presented to skip Peterson. He was there to pick up some stuff. As he was walking out this BOX of DATS was sitting on LOU’s desk.. JOE asked him what is that box can I take it. LOU said No sorry I can’t give those away. Joe said no problem and proceded to leave. At the last minute LOU SAYS, JOE ! take this box and do not tell anybody where you go them. So Joe put these dats in his warehouse and forgot about them for 15 years until I started buying Tool stuff from him.

To be very honest I had no idea how important these dats were because I could not play therm.. Joe also gave me a DENON DAT PLAYER so I could play the tapes. However your need a amp and all that stuff and I was on Vacation/ Vinyl shopping so Had no access to equipment to listen to it. Finally back home I decided one day to give these tapes a shot. I hooked up my dat player popped in a Tape and WHAMO ! the machine ate the tape !!!!!!!!!! MY heart started racing. then I gathered myself up, grabbed a screwdriver and open the thing up. . I saved the tape none the less and smashed the machine with a baseball bat HA . So I would never be tempted to put a tape in it again.

Only after I joined FB I met someone who was explaining to me how important it is to play these taps because I might have something the world has not heard. I purchased a MINI SONY dat recorder and played them all.

There is 1 song that has never been heard Live from Irwindale 93 show, and 4 tracks mixed by Skinny puppy 2 STINKFIST TRACKS and 2 H. tracks. one of the Stinkfist can be heard on youtube if you google. it.

So here is the story of my DAT’sThis is the longest posting I have ever done haha.Enjoy !

Here’s a link to the original post. There could be more information to come.

Blair’sTool newsletter for September 2018 is out now, and is a pretty short one, that really just highlights Maynard’s recent tweet. As many of you may know, Blair lives in Las Vegas now which makes getting regular updates from a band not always know for being communicative tough.

The good news is that Blair is heading to LA soon, and plans to take up Adam’s invitation to join them in the studio. Hopefully we’ll see some nicer updates in the next month or so.

TOOL NEWSLETTER

SEPTEMBER 2018 E.V.

In a couple of weeks I will be heading into Los Angeles to take care of some business regarding a couple of joint book projects with Danny. While there I will drop into the studio (taking Adam up on his recent invite) where the guys have been tracking to see how things are going and listen to some great prog-metal. Of course getting this Toolband update means securing a rental vehicle, dodging falling Prothonotary warblers that have been fried to a crispy char from the Ivanpah Solar Plant at the Nevada state line, filling up the tank in Baker for whatever dollar amount they want to charge for a gallon of gas, stopping at EddieWorld in Yermo to get retro candy for ‘Evil’ Joe (Curly Wurlys and whatnot), being searched for Sub-Saharan Kiwano at the I-15 South agriculture inspection, honking at confused drivers from Victorville in the Bear Valley Road intersection clusterfuck, stuck in mind-numbing traffic in the city (from what I remember after chewing all that Prevagen), having to find a few bucks to pay the valet at the North Hollywood Chevron station, and trying to find a parking space at the studio. But, then I’ll get the goods…maybe. At least, I’ll have some Reed’s Root Beer Rolls for Joe.

In the meantime, for those who haven’t already read it, here’s a tweet from Maynard on September 10, 2018.

What the update says to me though, is that recording is progressing, and I assume Adam is still doing his stuff with guitars. Given that reports tell us that the album is full of long complex songs, perhaps there are many intricate sounds the band is trying to capture this time around.

Also, given that Maynard hits the road again with A Perfect Circle this month, the question remains when we he record his vocals? It sounds like the instrumentals aren’t done yet, and I’m guessing he hasn’t already recorded so I suspect they will be recorded in Arizona sometime later in the year.

An interesting video popped up on Youtube today from Opiate video director Dominic Hailstone, which is a cool animation with a 10,000 Days era Tool logo placed over the top. The Opiate video, which is yet to be released was previewed to Tool fans at recent VIP and Music Clinic sessions – who knows when we’ll actually get to see it! Hopefully soon!

Another month goes by, and we have another newsletter with even Blair admitting there’s not much to share at the moment:

Well… I haven’t heard a peep pertaining to studio updates so make of that what you want. I know that it’s pretty typical in the ‘Tool world’ to be kept in the dark when projects such as recording sessions are ongoing, so what can I say? I’ve tried to get something… anything. I even checked out Hellboy’s fourtheye website to see if he managed to get wind of anything via the Net, but evidently he hasn’t. Keep checking, though (www.fourtheye.net). With that mind, I guess I’ll go have a couple of beers while playing video poker. Should Danny decide to pay me a visit (which he threatened to do a few weeks ago during my visit to Los Angeles), I’ll see if there’s anything that he can say on the record…about the record?

Maybe Danny should pay me a visit as well?

Being an optimist, I think that no news is good news. The band are busy doing their thing, and it seems at the moment that Danny & Justin have done their parts, and Adam is working on his. I suspect he shouldn’t be too far off done. The A Perfect Circle tour is done for now, and Maynard back in Arizona, getting ready to kick off the harvest. I don’t know how/when he’s planning to record, but interviews around the time of Eat The Elephant‘s release suggest he records from home these days. I expect once the instrumental work is done, Evil Joe will fly over and kick off the process.